Looking for the ‘Truth’
A big-city lawyer uncovers small town secrets in CW series.
The Canadian import “Burden of Truth,” premiering Wednesday on the CW, begins as a group of high school girls in the fictional town of Millwood start to manifest neurological symptoms — tics, seizures, balance difficulties, fuzziness of mind — that locals attribute to a vaccine against human papillomavirus.
Hotshot corporate attorney Joanna Hanley (Kristin Kreuk, Lana Lang on “Smallville”), who just happens to have grown up in Millwood, is sent by her father-boss (Alex Carter) from the generic Big City to offer preemptive settlements on behalf of the drug’s manufacturer.
Joanna, of whom her father says, “No filter, no conscience. God made you the perfect lawyer,” will experience conflicts of her own. As one red herring swallows another and the prairie town grows increasingly upset, our heroine comes to wonder whether there might be a good reason she gets punched in the face just for saying her name.
This series has something of the feel of a Lifetime movie writ long. Women dominate the cast and get things done, even when the system treats them inequitably. Their relationships are the heart of the story, including but not limited to: Joanna and her old friend Diana (Nicola CorreiaDamude), now the highschool guidance counselor; Joanna and Luna (Star Slade), her self-appointed assistant; Luna and her girlfriend Molly (a quietly impressive Sara Thompson), an ailing high school soccer star and the niece of Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney), the hunky small town lawyer Joanna initially finds herself opposing.
And though Joanna and Billy will professionally join forces, the writers are not in too much of a hurry to kindle a romance — they may never get around to it. There’s plenty else going on.
Created by Brad Simpson (“Rookie Blue”), the series is as good as it needs to be, and maybe a little better. Like other Canadian dramas that have made their way south, it is attractively modest in ambition and execution, without feeling cheap or flimsy. Many of the elements in the story are familiar, which is not the least attraction of this summer entertainment.
At the same time, “Burden of Truth” cleverly plays with expectations toward the usual suspects, before jerking the narrative hard to the side and sending things off in another direction for a while. It does become something of a pattern, but that is just how it is with long-arc mysteries dished out in weekly installments. Crisis makes way for crisis.